Read And Smile
Read And Smile * Season #: 5 * Episode #: 15 * Overall Ep #: 88 Plot While Raspberry is stuck in the hospital, he discovers the joys of reading but hides it from the Candies. Episode (Opening shot: fade in to Choco Cream and Gelatin Soft, sitting in the grass in the ice cream watermelon fields during the day. Something is heard clashing two pieces of metal together from a distance o.s., and the two turn their heads to track its movements as Lollipop Pops walks up.) * {Lollipop Pops} "Hey, Choco Cream. Hey, Gelatin Soft." (gazing at the screen) "What are you guys looking at?" * {Choco Cream} "Raspberry Ripple!" (A cut to Swirly Freeze with an epee sword frames the rosy-skinned boy with the same weapon, for a fencing match before the camera shifts back to the earthbound trio.) * {Choco Cream} "Isn't he the most daring devil -- I mean, the most devilish darer -- I mean --" * {Gelatin Soft} "He's dazzling!" * {Choco Cream} "Oh! Good word. He's dazzling!" (A jab from Swirly nearly gave Raspberry whiplash. In close up, Choco follows up by describing a large vertical circle with his head while turning it 360 degrees on his neck. An equally impossible 180-degree turn allows him to see the next trick, and all three voices of awe with Lollipop and Gelatin o.s. at this point. Zoom out to frame them; Choco's contortions finally catch up with him and untwist the body to leave him disoriented for a moment. Admiration quickly gives way to terror on the trio.) * {Lollipop Pops} "Uh oh..." * {Choco Cream} "Ay-yagh!" (Their gazes drop back to ground level in time with the sounds of a hurtling descent and a very hard landing that nearly shook the camera to pieces.) * {Lollipop, Choco, Gelatin} "Ohhhhh!" * {Swirly Freeze} (from o.s.) "So much for dazzling." ---------- (Opening shot; the black screen splits as if it were an opening eye, accompanied by the beeping of a heart monitor. The view is extremely fuzzy at this point, but enough detail can be picked out on all twelve colored blobs to identify them as the CandyCake Guppies.) * {Caramel Cider} (very muffled) "Is he gonna be okay?" (Blink.) * {Lemon Drop} (a bit clearer) "Oh, I'm so worried!" (Another blink focuses the image and clarifies the quality of the voices greatly.) * {Cotton Puffy} (voice echoing a bit) "Is his face gonna stay that way?" (A close-up of the boy reveals a woozy Raspberry, who clearly came down too hard from that fencing match he did with Swirly in the beginning. A bandage is stuck under one eye, and wrappings are visible around the base of his tail. He is in a hospital bed, as seen when the camera zooms out to frame the entire group, and he has been dressed in a green johnny. A longer shot of the room frames a curtain dividing his bed from the other side, as well as Dr Cauliflower.) * {Lollipop Pops} "How is it, Cauliflower?" * {Dr Cauliflower} "He's going to be fine. Luckily, he has friends like you who got him over here in a jiffy." * {Raspberry Ripple} (groaning impatiently) "How long do I need ta lie here? I got things ta do!" * {Dr Cauliflower} "Well, that all depends on your recovery, but I'd say a few days minimum." * {Raspberry Ripple} "You guys have gotta get me outta here! I'm gonna climb the walls!" * {Cotton Puffy} "Just like a spider!" * {Choco Cream} (to Cauliflower) "Did the crash somehow give him super-duper spider powers?" * {Dr Cauliflower} "N-no. Nor did it give him amazing healing powers." (back to Raspberry; he continues o.s.) "He needs to stay in bed for a few days." * {Raspberry Ripple} "Few days?" (He falls back onto his pillow.) "Might as well be a few months, years, forever." (Caramel & Lemon approach.) * {Lemon Drop} "It's not so bad, Raspberry Ripple." * {Caramel Cider} "I bet the chow in here is hand-lickin' good." (Cut to Cinnamon at the window.) * {Cinnamon Buns} (holding a johnny) "And the hospital gowns...they match the curtains!" (Big grin.) * {Cotton Puffy} "And look!" (He whisks away the dividing curtain to expose the occupant of the next bed; a male pony who has more broken bones than sound ones.) * {Choco & Cotton} "You have a roommate!" (The news prompts the downed pirate boy to turn over in bed and pull the blanket over himself. Caramel directs a puzzled shrugg at the other visitors, who glance uneasily at each other before all eyes shift toward Lollipop, now deep in thought. A squeaking noise draws attention to the open door, through which a library cart loaded with books is pushed into view. The noise came from its wheels, and the one dragging along is one of the hospital workers. Lollipop flies toward the door and returns a moment later, holding a book in her hand. She puts it on Raspberry's side. He regards is with the clearest loathing.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "What's this?" (His perspective of Lollipop, Snicker, Lemon, Sugar, Cotton, and Choco; he lifts the volume up to partially block them out. The cover depicts a boy guppy dressed in a pith helmet and a khaki bush long-sleeved shirt trimmed in a darker shade at collor and sleeves. His skinned is a faded purple, his eyes are green, and his hair displays a grayscale rainbow. He is driving a mini race car through vines.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Tornado Dash and the Quest for the Diamond Statue." (He lowers it partway; Lollipop leans close.) * {Lollipop Pops} "This is the first story in the series." (Lower away.) "I own all of them." (Big squeaky grin; cut to frame Raspberry as he pushes the proffered story away. The curtain has been closed again to block off the next bed.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Arrrrgh! No thanks! I so don't read! I'm a world-class athlete. Reading's for eggheads! No offense, but I am not reading. It's so darn, and yet so uncool!" (The sulky reverie is swiftly broken by the laughter of twelve guppies o.s.; cut to frame them again, then to Blueberry.) * {Blueberry Jam} "Are you serious? Who doesn't like to read a good ol' tale at bedtime?" (Pan to Gelatin.) * {Gelatin Soft} "Why, a good book is almost as magnificent as a pair of silky pajamas on a Saturday morning." (Cut to Lollipop, Lemon, and Sugar at the bed.) * {Lollipop Pops} "Reading is for everyone, Raspberry." * {Cotton Puffy} (from o.s.) "Yeah! I love reading!" (Cut to him, jumping in place.) "And my head isn't even close to the shape of an egg. It's more the shape of an apple, or maybe an orange, but a big orange, more a grapefruit really?" (The descriptive digression ends when he realizes that very puzzled set of eyes have trained themselves on him. Pan to the door, to the sound of Cauliflower approaching.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "All right, kids. Raspberry Ripple needs his rest. You'll have to come back tomorrow." (The Candies start to leave.) * {Lollipop Pops} (to Raspberry) "I think you'd like Tornado." (floating out) "He's a lot like you -- adventurous...fierce..." (Cut to her at the door.) "...and so darn...yet so unstoppable." (Raspberry is in room 12. Dissolve to a close-up of a wall clock that shows the time as 1:00, then cut to the bedridden pirate bouncing a ball off the far wall and the floor so that it returns to him. After a few cycles, though, it hits the bed's foorboard and rolls to a stop on the floor; he hangs his head on resignation.) (Clock-wipe to a close-up of a food tray resting on the blanket. Cube of gelatin, glass of juice, and a purple wad of whatever this comprise is; zoom out to show Raspberry eyeing it with obvious disdain. He nips the edge of the glass in his teeth and drinks, but gets the think stuck on his nose. It falls loose on his own. The thing leaves some juice dripping from his nose.) (Another clock wipe shows the disaffected pirate impatiently switching his bedside lamp on and off; his face is back to normal. He steps up the pace after the first few jabs at the button, but soon slows down again.) (Dissolve to a close-up of his weary face, the circles under his eyes attesting to the physical/mental fatigue that has set in. The wall clock's ticking makes itself heard loud and clear; he looks up at it, and a close-up reveals that it is still 1:00. This sequence of events has literally occurred in less than one minute, and the big hand clicks ahead one minute. Raspberry's jaw drops in sheer disbelief; he then reels it in for a frusterated growl and sighs. His next idea for passing time is to play around with his hook. Boredom, or the realization that such activity would likely poke his fingers, prompts himself to stop, and he unwillingly swivels his eyes to the book on his nightstand. He turns his back to it and crosses his arms resolutely, and then he glances back toward the nightstand while the books just sits there. He starts to think very hard. He sighs heavily and picks it up and settles down to read.) * {Raspberry Ripple} " 'As Tornado Dash drove through the misty jungle, the heat sapped his energy and slowed his every move.' " (Extreme close up of his eyes, roving back and forth over each line.) " 'If only he could escape this oppressive atmosphere and fly up into the great blue sky. But a fencing accident had left his tail injured, and he was grounded for a few days. Few days. It might as well be a few months, years, or forever.' " (His level of enthusiam begins to build from zero during the previous, and this last bit catches him by surprise, being an almost verbatim repetition of his own earlier moves. He sighs, eyeing his own busted tail.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Right there with ya, man." (Slow dissolve to a letterbox view of several giant stone monsters walking over an extensive body of water at sunrise. The image is slightly fuzzy and faded, with thin fridges of glare spilling of the top and bottom edges of the screen as if this were an old film.) * {Raspberry Ripple} " 'The Stonhenge Monsters stomped loudly.' " (Zoom out to frame a road in the middle of a desert; bird cries are heard now.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'Desert birds cry from the cacti.' " (Tilt over to the road; the guppy from the front cover drives through the lone road and eyes the area as growls float up behind him. A close-up frames part of his tail as light green striped with dark green.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'Yet all of these distracting noises were not enough to cover the sound of his enemies following him around.' " (Tornado Dash turns at a corner and finds himself with one very angry tiger running after him. He hits the brakes, revealing part of his tail wrapped in bandages, but finds a panther moving in with the tiger. Next, a lynx and a leopard move in. This gave Tornado an idea, and he swerves to his left and swerves again, leaving a cloud of dust behind. He drives through the road, pursued by all five felines again and stops short upon reaching the edge of a broad chasm. The yowls from behind him tells just how little time he has to make up his mind. He goes up for a jump, prompting all five pursuers to slide to a halt and run into each other, and the next shot reveals his mini car landing on the other side and landed. He commences to drive off.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'Safely landing on the other side...' " (Tornado stops his vehicle.) " 'Tornado finally allowed himself a moment to breathe.' " (He stopped abruptly when he looks off ahead of himself; cut to a close-up of a pyramid-like structure and zoom out. A flight of steps is leading down through the entrance. Tornado eyes it wonderingly.) * {Raspberry RIpple} (voice over) " 'He turned around to find himself face to face with the long-lost temple that he had sought tirelessly for over sixty days and nights!' " (Cut to a fullscreen shot of him in the hospital bed.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "I hate to admit to myself, and I really hate to admit this to the Candies, but..." (smiling broadly) "...I love this story!" (holding book at length) "I...I..." (hugging it to himself) "...I love reading!" (He falls back onto his pillow. Then, panic was given away.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (horrified) "I'm an egghead." ---------- (Opening shot; fade in to a letterbox view of a dim hallway within the pyramid. The only light comes from braziers carved into the walls. Pan/tilt down to frame a square of sky at the opening on the far end; Tornado, ditching his mini car, gingerly climbs the steps, eyeing the dark passage beyond the braziers.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'The smell of decay and danger hit Tornado Dash as he peered into the dimly lit entrance of the ancient pyramid.' " (His composure and confidence restored, he moves ahead; zoom in on a skull carving on the wall behind him. Three pairs of glowing red eyes appear within the gaping mouth and shift to follow his progress. Dissolve to a close-up of Tornado on the move through a bug-infested stretch of rubble and bleached bones, then cut to a head-on view of the lavender face. One small patch of floor sinks slightly under the weight of his body, followed by the sound of a mechanism kicking into gear. Tornado ducks, barely avoiding the three pickaxes that whistle across the hallway and through the space where his head used to be. They wind up embedded in the wall, but he has little time to appreciate the booby trap before another one is thrown. A hidden joint in the floor slides apart beneath him, throwing him into a very uncomfortable spreadeagle position, and he vaults ahead just in time to avoid a blast of fire from below.) (Next, several giant mutant snails drop into view to claw at him; they suspended from the ceiling, forcing him to crawl ahead. A swinging pendulum blade and a volley of darts give Tornado no space, followed by a series of spikes that pop up from the floor, one by one. As he leaps ahead to avoid being skewered, a stone slab at the far end of the hallway begins to descend toward the floor. He gallops ahead through the spikes and slides to a stop -- with his head directly beneath the dropping monolith. One final burst of motion gets him in the clear before it slams down to cut off his retreat.) (Tornado gets up and wipes the sweat from his forehead. His voice sounds as Vanilla's might in a few years -- same brash confidence, but a bit lower in pitch and without the raspy edge.) * {Tornado Dash} "Phew!" (No time to rest; another mechanism kicks up as stones and dust fall from above. He lets off a frusterated groan; cut to another open doorway. A lively, camera-shaking ruckus is heard from within it, and Tornado rolls through just before it too slams shut. His helmet, now in his teeth, has been repeatedly pierced by darts; he brushes these away and puts it one again. A look around this chamber reveals a round hole in the ceiling, through which a dusty shaft of light filters in. This begins to move across the chamber and eventually picks out a figurine on a pedestal at the far end -- the one seen on the book's cover. Its blue eyes cast blinding shafts of radiance that fills the screen; when the view clears, it is seen in close-up. A vine creature sits, holding a large gen in its hand.) (An extreme close-up of Tornado's eyes shows the reflections of this treasure in his widened pupils. His mouth curves into a wondering smile -- and then the view dissolves to a close-up of Raspberry's face, set in the same expression. A knock at the door throws a scare into him; zoom out to show his partway underneath his bed's blankets, eargerly hunched over the book.) (Pan wuickly to the closed door as the knob begins to turn, then cut back to Raspberry. He frantically stuffs the book under the blanket and strikes the best nonchalant pose he can; an instant later, these Candies burst in; Lollipop, Snicker, Lemon, and Sugar.) * {Lollipop, Sugar, Snicker, Lemon} "Hi, Raspberry Ripple!" * {Raspberry Ripple} "Uh...ahoy, there." * {Lemon Drop} "We thought we'd come and cheer you up." (Cut to the patient and zoom out slightly. The sight of a boxed board game being carried nearby throws him off balance.) * {Lollipop Pops} (from o.s.) "We brought your favorite board game." (It's plunked down; cut to a close-up of it, now set up on the end of the bed. Two folding displays are placed back to back, wit various figures being placed on the lower portion of the one facing the camera. It is a space version of the classic game Battleship.) * {Sugar Pie} (from o.s.) "We know how much you like to win." (Raspberry casts a sidewise glance down at his bed and nudges one edge of the blanket down to hide the book from view.) * {Snicker Doodle} "You go first, Raspberry." * {Raspberry Ripple} (forcing a chuckle) "No, no. You first." {Cut to the four visitors, who take their positions at the display he cannot see, all the while trading a very skeptical look.) * {Lollipop Pops} "All right. Uh...Cloud-Three." * {Raspberry Ripple} (from o.s.) "Arrr!" (Back to him.) "You rained on my cumulus. Heh. Go again." (Pan to the pair.) * {Sugar Pie} "Um...Sky-Two?" * {Raspberry Ripple} (from o.s.) "Woah!" (Cut to him; he holds up one game piece.) "You found my seagull. Good one!" (Toss aside.) * {Snicker Doodle} "Hmm...Cloud-Four?" (Cut to Raspberry.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "You zapped my weather guardian!..." (chuckling) "You've stung my dragonfly!..." (groaning) "My thunderbolt!" (The second and third parts of this line are accompanied by cuts to frame his face in closer detail. After the last, cut to frame all five again.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Aw, that's my last cloud." (smiling, hastily) "You found it. Guess you all win. I lose." (He shifts his emotions without a clutch again, giving a pout and huff, and snatches the game away; pieces scatter everywhere.) * {Snicker Doodle} "But, Raspberry, you...you didn't even get a turn." (Raspberry is feverishly cramming the lid back on the box, but catches himself and smiles.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "You win some, you lose some." (An even bigger grin fails to placate Lollipop.) * {Lollipop Pops} "But you don't lose some. I don't think you've ever lost a game of --" (Raspberry drops the game, stretches, and yawns.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Thanks for coming." * {Lemon Drop} "But yesterday you were desperate to go dash somewhere!" (Raspberry picks it up and shoves it to Lollipop.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Dash? Who said anything about Tornado Dash?" (Pan to the four, puzzled; he continues o.s.) "I told you, I'm not interested in reading." (The lights go out; cut to Raspberry, who has switched off the lamp.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (yawning) "It's naptime for me." (The young pirate leans his head on the pillow as he lets go with some very loud and very inauthentic snoring.) * {Sugar Pie} (floating out) "Glad we could...um, cheer you up?" (Lollipop aims a critical eye at the pirate, who opens one of his own and yawns even louder; now the violet-haired girl heads for the door.) * {Lollipop Pops} "All right, then." (Only after the door has closed, and the four shadows can no longer be seen in the slit of light shinning in beneath it, Raspberry fished out his book and carries on reading.) * {Raspberry Ripple} " 'Tornado Dash stopped at the entrance to the central pyramid chamber.' " (Cut to a "film" view of Tornado, who straightens up with a shining-eyed smile, and zoom out to put the jeweled figurine in the fore.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'At last, he was face to face with the legendary Diamond Statue!' " (Directly in front of him is a grid of floor tiles, each marked with a picture of a jungle animal. He puts one hand ahead, but quickly yanks it back as if remembering the gauntlet of booby traps he set off earlier. A glance off to one side discloses a battery of holes in the wall, indicating a set of hidden darts ready to fire; he looks around, spots a rock on the floor, and kicks it onto the grid. Once it comes to rest, its weight causes the tile to sink slightly; the darts fly across the chamber, embedding themselves in the wall to form a pony-shaped pattern. He leans down to study the tiles.) * {Tornado Dash} "Hmm...there must be a pattern here." (Pan across the grid, putting him o.s.) "What do these animals have in common?" (Cut back to him.) * {Tornado Dash} "Yes!" (Cut to a pan across them; he continues o.s.) "These animals are all predators, except..." (Stop on a tile depicting a rat and zoom in.) * {Tornado Dash} (from o.s.) "...Mice!" (One hand is lifted and placed ever so gently on this spot -- absolutely nothing happens in response. Tornado has squeezed his eyes tight shut, but opens one of them to peek around.) * {Tornado Dash} "Phew!" (Getting his whole body onto this tile, he jumps across the grid to zigzag his way from one mouse to the next and is soon at the base of the steps leading up to the Diamond Statue's pedestal. He throws a savage grin back at the obstacle he has just conquered and climbs up to the prize. The helmet coems off and the sparkes play in his eyes and he regards it with genuine awe; putting the headwear back on, he gets down to business. Inspect the pedestal from another angle, wave a hand above it to check for wires, wipe the sweat out of his hair, rub his hands together -- and then Tornado just gets bored with the whole thing and snatches the Statue in his hands. He drops out of sight and gallops off, with the statue under his arm and not noticing that his action has caused a peg to extend itself upward from the pedestal.) (Back at ground level, Tornado has removed his helmet so he can drop in the Statue. Once he puts it back on, he realizes what is happening; the peg suddenly drops back into its hidden grove and the ceiling begins to cave in. Before Tornado can move, the tiles crumble away to expose an ocean of steaming lava underneath. Several of the columns lining the walls topple into the molten rock as the liquid surface rises inexorably to swallow the pedestal's lowest steps. Tornado scrambles up to the top, looking desperately for a way out of this mess, and lets his glance rove from the tumbled columns to the chamber's ceiling hole. Gritting his teeth, he jumps from the pedestal and gets himself balanced on one broken end; just before this too is swallowed up, he leaps high and snags the edge of the hole. Outside, on the temple roof, Tornado is flung skyward by a sudden burst of steam and the lava overflows through the hole.) (The dazed young explorer does a graceless belly flop onto the forest floor, the Statue falling out of his helmet to land a few feet away. A large arm in a purple sleeve slams down in front of him; cut to a head-on shot of the new arrival and tilt up to frame all of it. This is the familar monster from the episode Teacher's Threat, Twilight Basher.) * {Twilight Basher} (Cotton's voice) "Hel-loooo, Raspberry!" (Zoom out quickly from this scene to stop in the hospital room. A panicked Raspberry looks up from his book; cut to the following Candies entering the room, giving Raspberry barely enough time to hide the novel under the blanket -- Blueberry, Choco, Cinnamon, Vanilla, Caramel, Rainbow, Cotton, and Gelatin.) * {Cinnamon Buns} "How's our patient doing today?" (Caramel crosses the room with a sigh; Raspberry swears heavily.) * {Blueberry Jam} "We need to get some fresh air in here." * {Caramel Cider} "You're lookin' sweatier than a pig on a summer's day." * {Raspberry Ripple} (stammering a bit) "Uh...well, guys...thanks for visiting, but--" (Cauliflower enters the room, pushing a cart with a dinner tray.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Okay now. Dinnertime for Raspberry Ripple." (He deposits the cart by the bed and leaves; the patient grabs the tray off it and feigns enthusiasm over the unappetizing food.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Oh, just in time. I am sooo hungry." (Pan slightly to frame Gelatin.) * {Gelatin Soft} "Oh, well, don't mind us, Raspberry." (Pan to Vanilla, on Raspberry's other side.) * {Vanilla Cake} "Yeah, just go ahead and eat up." (Finding himself hemmed in by these two on either side, and the rest at the foot of the bed, he has no choice but to dig in. Which he proceeds to do in the most ill-mannered, uncouth, and just plain messy fashion possible. The horrid display, and the particles of food flying in the air that accompany it, are enough to send these eight visitors toward the exit.) * {Rainbow Flavor} (shuddering) "On second thought..." * {Choco Cream} "Uh, we'll see you tomorrow, Raspberry." (Uneasy laugh.) (After the door is closed, he quickly spits out the mouthful over the side. Face cleaned, he retrieves the book and plunges back in. Zoom in slowly on his darting eyes.) * {Raspberry Ripple} " 'You thought you could evade me and capture the relic for yourself, but you were sadly mistaken, Mr Dash!' " (Dissolve to a "film" view of Twilight Basher, tilting up from ground to head as before. This time, he speaks in his normal voice, as the camera zooms out to frame him against the sun. He now holds the Statue in one hand and a small gold puppy figure in the other.) * {Twilight Basher} "And now, you shall meet your doom!" (As the young half-dazed explorer struggles to rise, the elf brings the kitten figure up to his mouth and blows into the tail, generating a shrill whistle with overtones of a dog's bark. Right on cue, here comes the tiger, panther, lynx, and leopard. Cut to a long overhead shot of the tableau and zoom out slowly as Twilight uncorks a long, crazed laugh. Cut back to a fullscreen shot of Raspberry, now sitting up in bed with the blanket up over his back.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Oh-oh-oh! Who's this dude?" ("Film" view: a chamber within a different structure. A large gold medallion is hung on the wall near celing level, with the image of a menacing animal face worked into it, tilt down to the sound of Tornado's heaving breath. He is lashed to a stone table on his back; the four jungle cats stand around him.) * {Tornado Dash} "You won't get away with this, Twilight Basher!" (Cut to him, standing by a lever on a wall and still holding the Statue in his hand.) * {Twilight Basher} "But I already have!" (He pulls the lever; machinery starts up.) * {Tornado Dash} (groaning) "Not again!" (The whole crew bails out and the door closes as spikes emerge from two opposite walls, which begin to grind slowly toward each other. Tornado struggles against his bonds to no avail; meanwhile, spiders crawl out along the spikes, cobras slither from a hole in the gold medallion, and spouts on the walls begin to dispense...) * {Tornado Dash} "Quicksand!" (He keeps straining as all four perils gradually converge him, the table starting to sink into the muck.) * {Dr Cauliflower} (voice over, echoing) "Raspberry Ripple!" (Close-up of the avid reader; a small pool of light is cast over him from an o.s. source.) * {Dr Cauliflower} (from o.s.) "Raspberry Ripple?" (Zoom out slightly. The light is coming from a lantern filled with fireflies, and he has tunneled underneath his bed's blanket. He looks guiltily off to one side; cut to frame the doctor in the foreground. It's daytime, and the lantern picks out his silhouette within the bedclothes.) * {Dr Cauliflower} (singsong) "Oh, Raspberry Ripple!" (The blanket tries to flee in at least four different directions, then gets shoved aside to expose his head and the lantern.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (stammering a bit} "Oh! Good evening---" * {Dr Cauliflower} "Morning." * {Raspberry Ripple} (stretching) "---morning, Doc." (He looks quickly out the window and finds the sun rising. Cut to the doctor, who is eyeing the lantern with clear suspicion.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Have you been staying up all night?" (It is whisked away.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (from o.s.) "Uh, of course not." (Cut to him; a quick puff of air scatters the fireflies out of the lantern to extinguish it. He grins broadly and hides it behind his back, placating the doctor.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Well, I'll be. Congradulations, Raspberry Ripple, we're checking you out of the hospital." * {Raspberry Ripple} "What?! Later today?" * {Dr Cauliflower} "No." (He backs o.s.) "Right now." * {Raspberry Ripple} "Right now?! As in 'right now' right now?!" (Cut to him at the door; he charges in with a wheelchair.) * {Dr Cauliflower} " 'Right now' right now." (Comes next a melee from the direction of the bed, along with clouds of dust and Raspberry's johnny being flung back.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (from o.s.) "But I don't feel better!" (The bandages go next.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Now take it easy, Raspberry Ripple." (walking out) "Remember to stay off your tail for a week." (He -- in his normal articles of clothing -- is pushed out in the chair and he tries desperately to reach back behind himself. Cut to him receding perspective of the bed and the lump in it that marks his hidden book. Outside the front entrance, the discharged patient gets one final shove to roll him onto the walk. The doors are slammed shut; zoom in on him as he bangs the chair's arms in frustration.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "How will I ever find out what happens to Tornado Dash?" (Zoom out to a long shot of him and the building.) ---------- (Opening shot; fade in to Raspbery, pacing in the chair.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Is Twilight Basher gonna get away with the statuette? What's gonna happen to Tornado Dash?" (He gets an idea.) "Aha! Lollipop has a copy of the book!" (Defeated sigh.) "But I can't ask her after I called her an egghead and all! This is making me sick all over again!" (He develops another idea; zoom in on his calculating smile, then clock wipe to the hospital lobby. The doors slide open to show Raspberry, who limps toward the front desk with a hand pressed to his forehead. Cauliflower takes note of his arrival.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (groaning, flopping onto bench) "Oh, the pain, the pain!" (Cauliflower approaches.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Raspberry Ripple? What are you doing here? Is anything wrong?" * {Raspberry Ripple} "Well, uh...my tail! It's still hurting, Doc." (He goes down on his back; he flexes the blubber a bit with no immediate reaction. After a moment, he provides one in the form of a full-body twitch.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Oh...ouch! Right there!" (The doctor gives him a sardonic little chuckle smiles.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "I think I know what's going on. A severe case of...lazy-itis." (Outside the front entrance, he bulldozes the malingerer onto the walk. The sky is working its way toward sunset now.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "But...you've got it all wrong, Doc! I'm not being lazy!" * {Dr Cauliflower} "You're fine, Raspberry Ripple. Give it some time and you'll be right back in the swing of things. Good day and take care, Raspberry Ripple." (He heads back in.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "What am I gonna do?" (limping off) "I'll never get to sleep without knowing what happens to Tornado Dash!" (He stops, with a third idea flashing into his head. Zoom in to a close-up.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Which may not be such a bad thing." (He limps off again. Dissolve to the full moon in the night sky and cut to the exterior of the hospital. After the lights in all the windows have been off/shut, the young pirate jumps out from the bushes at one corner of the building. He has put on a black, full body hooded sweatshirt that leaves only his face exposed. The pirate slinks toward the front entrance, only to find himself in a slit of light issuing from between the double doors. Cut to a close-up of the source, a castle guard scorpion has the end of the flashlight in its claw.) (Once the glare from the bean ies down, the view shifts to just outside the doors as he goes through them to make his rounds. Raspberry is nowhere to seen for the moment, but he peeks up from a new hiding place on the portico above the entrance. A glance upward reveals an open upper-story window. After sneaking past other scorpion guardians, he looks around, and finds a beam of moonlight shining through an overhead grate to pick out the closed door of room 12. A big squeaky calculating smile steals across the intruder's face.) (Inside the room, whose door has now been opened, Raspberry peeks in and stays low while easing past the patient in full-body traction. He looks with surprise as he noticed his former bed is now occupied by a sleeping alien in yellow. He finds his object lying underneath the bed; he hunkers down here to get back into the story.) (Cut to a "film" view of Tornado in the four-way death trap set off by Twilight Basher.) * {Tornado Dash} (with effort) "Feels like the harder I struggle...the tighter the ropes get!" (A cobra by his side speaks up.) * {Cobra} (male voice) "Help!" (Zoom in on it.) "Burglar! Burglar!" (Cut to Raspberry under the new patient's bed. He hears the voice again, causing him to start so violently that he bangs his head against the bed frame and knocks himself silly for a moment.) * {Male Voice} "Someone's trying to steal my slipeprs!" (Out he comes, book in hand, finding the sick alien sitting up in bed to mark him as the speaker.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Arr! I'm not trying to steal your slippers!" (easing away from bed) "I'm trying to steal this book!" (He makes it back into the hall, only to be confronted by a guardian scorpion.) * {Scorpion Guardian} "Stop thief!" (More guardians come and as well as Cauliflower from other two directions, ready to attack. Raspberry takes to the air and flies over this, but a sudden cramp or re-fracture in his tail sends him crashing into the library cart. He looks wildly about the scatter of books in search of the right one, but a buzzer forces him to clear out ahead of the group, in the empty library cart.) (Outside, he bursts from the front doors and rides down a hill littered with stumps, rocks, and other nasty articles. His pursuers are hot after him, and a lion growling does very little to calm his spirits. As they spread out, it can be see that they have lights, except for one. The last following behind can only be discerned as a silhouette with a thin body shape.) (As Raspberry rode through Jupiter Town, Red pops his head out from his window.) * {Red Unicorn} (angrily) "Hey! What's with all the noise?!" (Raspberry pays no attention and rides on, his face showing shock before he skids to a full stop. He has reached the stream that borders Jupiter Town; a bridge is seen. As the gang close in, Raspberry goes down the bridge. However, his heroics are for naught, as they are still after him. The chase still takes a hairpin turn in Jupiter Town. Sunflower opens the front door of his home.) * {Sunflower} "Who could be making all this noise at this time of night?" (As Raspberry leads his pursuers back and forth past the Rainbow House, all of its windows light up and the Candies opens the front door to take in the scene. Raspberry falls off the cart.) * {Dr Cauliflower} (from o.s.) "Raspberry Ripple, what in the world is going on?" (Zoom out to frame him and the guardians.) * {Dr Cauliflower} "Why are you stealing slippers?" (The one creature of the crew is now seen in close-up as one of the guardians casts a light over it; a thin, dark red alien dressed in a white johnny. He, rather than a actual lion, has been generating the roars heard during the entire chase scene.) * {Dr Cauliflower} (from o.s.) "Hey, get back to the hospital!" (He slips off, followed by one of the guardians. The entire CandyCake Guppies team arrive on the scene.) * {Caramel Cider} "What's all the ruckus?" (Cotton pops up.) * {Cotton Puffy} "I'd say it's more of a fracus than a ruckus." (Cut to the cornered pirate, with Lollipop and the doctor glaring at him, and zoom in slowly; he has lowed the hood of his outfit.) * {Lollipop Pops} "What's going on, Raspberry Ripple?" (The pirate sighs heavily and hangs his head.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "I'm an egghead." * {Gelatin Soft} "Pardon?" (Sugar smiles.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "I was trying to get back into the hospital to finish the last chapter of---" * {Lollipop Pops} "--''Tornado Dash and the Quest for the Diamond Statue''!" (squeaky grin) * {Raspberry Ripple} "You got me." * {Blueberry Jam} "Wow. I knew the book was good, but I didn't know it could drive someone to petty theft!" * {Raspberry Ripple} "Good, lassey? Try crazily amazing!" (smiling fiercely) "That book is so darn, yet so un-put-down-able! But then I had to put it down. I was sent home before I could finish it." (He smiles sheepishly.) * {Lollipop Pops} "Well, I'm glad that's all this is about." * {Vanilla Cake} "There's no reason to go around causing a ruckus--" * {Choco Cream} "Fracas!" * {Vanilla Cake} "--causing a fracas just because you like to read." (Dissolve to the right end of a particularly full bookshelf and pan to the left one.) * {Lollipop Pops} (holding one out) "Like I said, I have every book in the series, and you can borrow them all anytime you like." (Cut to inside of the house.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Thanks, lassey. I'm sorry I made such a big deal about all this. I thought reading was just for smarties like you." * {Lollipop Pops} (gently reproving) "Just because you like to read doesn't make you an egghead." (Pan to Beeping Bot.) * {Beeping Bot} (flexing one arm) "Yeah! Just look at me! Yeah!" (He gets no love from either two guppies, so he grumpily walks off.) * {Lollipop Pops} "Reading is something everyone can enjoy, if they just give it a try." * {Raspberry Ripple} "Yes, I get it. I shouldn't knock something until I've tried it. Now, you've got a book to finish!" (Raspberry left lightning-fast. The scene contracts to letterbox aspect ratio and dissolves to a "film" view of Tornado still in his jam on the stone table. After a few groans and a bit of thrashing, he flips his head forward so that his helmet ends up lying on his belly, brim up. Casting his frantic eyes about the room and noting the position of every detail, his tail constricting the helmet, snags the brim in his teeth, and pulls back as if to trying to launch a slingshot. When he lets go, the helmet is flung across the room to bounce off one spike; it whirls around the edge of the gold medallion on the wall, the ricochetts crazily between several other spikes. Tornado sucks in a huge breath and holds it as the quicksand envelops his face -- and on its last bounce, the helmet bangs into the lever Twilight Basher pulled to start this engine. It flips up, causing the spiked walls to retract and the table to rise above the surface of the draining sand. Now free of his bonds, Tornado heaves for breath and knocks a few grains out of his hair.) (The exit slides open, and he gets up with helmet in hand.) * {Tornado Dash} "Another day..." (putting it on) "...another dungeon." (Cut to a close-up to Twilight.) * {Twilight Basher} "With Tornado Dash out of the way..." (Zoom out toframe all of him; he sits on a stone throne, holding the Statue in his hand. The tiger and lynx nap on either side, while the panther dozes on top of the headrest.) * {Twilight Basher} "...the world will suffer mightily at my hands! I am victorious!" (He laughs wildly for a few seconds, but a blur of monochrome rainbow stops him in his tracks. It also leaves his hand holding nothing.) * {Tornado Dash} (from o.s.) "I'll take that!" (Cut to him, holding the Statue in one arm and in his mini car to drive away.) * {Twilight Basher} (stammering) "What?!" (Tornado drives off.) * {Twilight Basher} "AHHHHHHHH!!" (Tornado tucks the Statue away.) * {Tornado Dash} "Better luck next time, Twilight Basher!" (He gives his helmet a nudge and drives away, the camera zooming out to frame the entire area. The elf's shouting causes everything to shake in place.) * {Twilight Basher} (from o.s.) "CURSE YOU, TORNADO DASH!!" (Cut to a long shot of the jungle at sunset.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (voice over) " 'And so, with Twilight Basher defeated and the Diamond Statue secured...' " (Dissolve to a close-up of Raspberry, now at the end of the book, as the view widens out to fullscreen.) * {Raspberry Ripple} " '...the world was safe and sound once again -- thanks to Tornado Dash!' " (He slams it shut and falls backward o.s. with a blissful sigh. Cut to a short stack of books; he reaches his arm into view and takes the topmost one in his hand. He lounges back onto the pillows with this new one.) * {Raspberry Ripple} "Tornado Dash and the Golden Goblet." (He clasps it to his belly.) * {Raspberry Ripple} (giddily) "Yes!" (He settles in to bust some pages.) End of episode.